Pick Up Bittman Bread: No-Knead Whole Grain Baking For Every Day Prepared By Mark Bittman Digital Copy

is a great cookbook filled with all kinds of recipes for whole grain, sourdough, noknead breads, Colorful photos accompany the recipes and they're simple and sound delicious, While some noknead bread cookbooks offer gluten free recipes, this one does not provide any GF breads so it's not a book I can test in our kitchen.
No nutritional information is provided, There is a huge range of recipes though, including nontraditional sourdough noknead items, Well recommended.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review, Mark Bittman popularized a method for baking bread at home that I have been using for many years, I can not overstate his role in taking complex professional baking/cooking techniques and placing them within reach for home cooks, He is a marvel. His new book BITTMAN BREAD goes beyond the basic bread recipe and explains how to make most baked goods using a homemade starter and something other than white flour.
His recipes are, as always, easy to understand and filled with useful photos, This book will be a useful addition to anyone determined to add noknead baking to their regular baking, It is a Bittman Classic, I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley, "Bittman Bread" explains his techniques for making wholegrain bread using a variation on noknead bread and a sourdough starter started from commercial bread yeast.
He explained his noknead technique and how to make the sourdough starter and keep it alive, There were stepbystep pictures showing the process, He also included other bread recipes that use this starter, He explained the process with enough detail and troubleshooting tips that I feel confident that I can make this starter and bread, However, it takes a lot of time and effort, I was also somewhat confused by why the sourdough starter was done with white flour, It seemed based on the assumption that you're currently using white flour, but I don't have any in the house, so hopefully whole grain will work well.
Overall, I'd recommend this to fans of whole wheat bread and/or noknead bread,

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley, The pandemic sourdough craze largely passed me by I'm lucky enough to live in a vibrant city with artisan coffee shops and bakeries on every corner.
But as I've had great success with the now famous NoKnead Bread, brought to the New York Times by author Mark Bittman, I was excited for the opportunity to read an advance review copy of his latest, Bittman Bread, written in collaboration with cookbook developer Kerri Conan.
I had some concern that I would be disappointed, as contrary to the authors' assumptions, amazing brown and black bread is already a part of my staple diet.
I'd never tried to make it myself in fact, I'd internalised the idea that it was more difficult and less rewarding than white bread.
I was right about one of those things: it was certainly more difficult,

The first recipe in the book, called Beginner Bittman Bread, is meant to get us used to the procedure and to create the starter used for the rest of the recipes.
The authors take the time to explain what all good bakers know: a kitchen scale gives much more precision than working with a stack of measuring cups.
Investing in a kitchen scale makes sense, as every recipe in the book, the authors warn us, will list ingredients by weight in order to ensure our baking success.
Everyone but this one, which, inexplicably, only uses cups and teaspoons, leading me to dust off my measuring cups for a single loaf.
This recipe is meant to ease us into the process and I do not begrudge obstinate cooks their measuring cups but one would think that offering both weight and volume as an option on this could save everyone a bit of time converting when they go back to it.


I had no idea that it was the last normal looking loaf that I would make for three months, Since I received my review copy, I have made twentysix loaves of bread, Maybe twentyseven. Initially, I had planned to try the main recipe and a few of the later variations and maybe increase my general understanding of bread making and then go back to the easier white bread recipes that I already knew.


From the first loaf, it was clear that this was something different, more like German "Bauernbrot" of my youth, although I hadn't added any rye at all at least, not at first.


It was also flat, Not pancake flat but certainly not the lovely rounded loaf shown in the photographs, My loaf was a dense flying saucer shaped door stopper which could easily be used to knock out a burglar,

As it happens, the bread was also delicious or else I might have stopped at the first hurdle,

The best advice in the book is to commit to making a loaf of bread every week, I decided that I might as well try this, expecting that I'd give the bread to friends and neighbours and other unsuspecting souls when we tired of it.
I didn't expect it to become an obsession,

My family was sympathetic, offering advice from "couldn't you just buy baker's yeast" to "it's not actually bad, you know, just a bit heavy.
" Nevertheless, they ate all but my most appalling failures and happily asked for more,

It is testament to the friendly and detailed tone of the book that I wondered, briefly, if I should email Mark Bittman or Kerri Conan to describe my issues and ask for help.
Instead, I focused on each individual stage to see if I could make bread which looked less like a hockey puck and more like the many photographs included in the text.


There was never a hallelujah moment but, over time, I saw incremental improvements, both in form and in flavor, The biggest single difference was an early one when I started working the dough harder I've clearly been spoiled by No Knead Bread.
Another quick improvement was setting up a template that I could quickly fill in with timings so that I didn't have to think about the next stage or stand there wondering, "Now was this the second fold or the third fold"

In the process, I learned to adjust the timings and the processes to my own schedule, to the point where making a loaf of bread was not so much a project as a set of quick chores that I quickly completed, akin to dealing with the dishwasher or catching up on the laundry, except that the end result was more enjoyable.


My family is now used to there always being a loaf of brown bread on the counter and expresses disappointment when there isn't any.
I'm still trying to improve, let alone get around to the other recipes in the book, but I have to concede Bittman's point in the introduction: Why make whole grain bread It's better.
Not only healthiest but far fuller tasting, more complex and satisfying,

I'm confident now that I can quickly produce a respectable loaf of bread using wholegrain wheat and rye flours, and that even if the loaf isn't as prettily shaped as in the photographs, it has a good crumb and

great flavour.
If you are looking for a quick fix, the brown equivalent of noknead bread, then this probably isn't the book for you, However, if you'd like to level up your bread making and become comfortable with a wide variety of flours and variations, then Bitmann and Cronan are here to help you through that process.


Just be warned that your family may expect you to keep making bread forever, Bittman Bread was not a baking book I enjoyed reading and I like to read baking books, I found his writing irritating don't know why and his recipes while good were a bit more work than I was willing to do.
I bake on a regular basis, in fact I made a loaf of bread and some dinner rolls today, using the oldfashioned method that I learned from Betty Crocker.


Recommend with caveats given,

written after downloading a galley from NetGalley,.stars. This is a guide to making delicious,wholegrain breads using sourdough, Years ago Bittman taught me to bake noknead bread, and now hes upped his game with whole grains, Its only sort of accurate to call these recipes noknead: the traditionalminutes of kneading has turned into four “folds” half an hour apart.
Theyre easier to execute but do require a time commitment, Ultimately, they work to make delicious loaves of perfect texture and flavor,

I tried a few of the nonloaf recipes, and can vouch for the pancakes, drop beignets, and cinnamon rolls too, I cant wait to make the Scandinavianstyle travel bread as soon as I can get my hands on some cracked rye, If I ruled the world this book would also offer a recipe for sproutedgrain bread, which I started messing with during the pandemic and which solves the perennial wholegrain baking problem of stale flour.
Maybe Ill try to adapt it on my own, This book is for someone who wants a textbook on bread making, but it is bread of a certain sort only whole grain and extremely hearty.
All of the breads start with the same homemade starter, There is no kneading required, To make the breads, basically you use starter, add flour and water, employ various resting periods, add salt and other flavorings, fold a few times and then bake in a covered pot lined with parchment paper.
The chapters are progressive : “Making your starter and a first loaf a detailed discussion of grains, flours, equipment, and timing feeding the starter and producing your first Bittman Bread other loaves in the same vein, but wildly varied pizza and flatbread and rolls and savory pancakes sweet things including pancakes and waffles.
”

I found this book interesting and informative, although I am never going to bake bread, Frankly, I use my ovens for storage, and even the stovetop recipes like flatbread and pancakes looked too “hearty” for me, However, for a bread baker I think that this would be a very useful book, All of the steps are explained very clearly and most of them are illustrated,

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, This seems like a labor and time intensive way of making bread, I have a few great noknead recipes for whole wheat breadwith variations from My Beef with Meat and one with variations from the New Healthy Bread inMinutes a Day that are simpler and easier.
I also have an excellent adaptable recipe for whole grain bread in a bread machine from Eating You Alive, which I use for sandwich loaves.
Perhaps Bittman's method is the way to go if you do not want to use commercial yeast, but I don't see myself having time to do this for everyday baking.


As a side note, I was disappointed to see butter, eggs, bacon, and whole cow's milk featured so prominently in a book from Mark Bittman.
I thought he was champoining more healhful and environmentally responsible eating I read an OpEd by Bittman in the NYT and he convinced me that, as a bread lover, I needed to try this technique.
It is not quick and easy like my old standby no knead artisan bread, but the results are phenomenal, I love that Bittman explains the science behind what happens with the bread because it makes each step feel more worth the effort.
If you love to make food that also feels like a science project, this book is definitely for you, I would never have believed that bread made withwhole wheat tastes this good, it is unlike any bread I've made or eaten before.
I would give this bookstars, but knock one off because it isn't exactly great for "every day" baking, Because it's winter and I've been home more, it's a "once a week" baking, but I'm sure that won't last forever, Even so, it's worth it if you love to make bread, Do you want your own real whole wheat bread every day
Author and chef Mark Bittman is presenting his book "Bittman Bread.
NoKnead Whole Grain Baking for Every Day" together with Kerri Conan, The book was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,
In the introduction Bittman tells about his history and experience of bread making, Conan states: "Our goal is lofty but simple: We want to make naturally leavened whole grain bread the centerpiece of nutritious meals" p.
. The book "unfolds in six progressive chapters: Making your starter and a first loaf a detailed discussion of grains, flours, equipment, and timing feeding the starter and producing your first “Bittman Bread” other loaves in the same vein, but wildly varied pizza and flatbread and rolls and savory pancakes sweet things including pancakes and waffles" p.
.
This is a great book for those who are interested in bread making and have the necessary time, for those who don't want to use bread baking mixes, for those who are interested using a starter that is not yeast, for those who are interested in using real whole great even for pizzas, rolls, and sweet stuff.
The book is presented in a great design and the pictures create a real appetite, I also appreciated that the recipes are in grams since Bittman recommends weighting the ingredients and are not using American measuring cups and spoons which are not as easy available in various parts of the world.
Sadly the baking temperatures are only given in F, A conversion table would have been really helpful for those who are used to C, A further challenge is the fact that one not only has to have access to right grains, but also to a usable covered pot or Dutch oven and parchment paper.
I use my own recipes for baking my bread and usually use a bread making machine but I might try some of these recipes one day.

The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge, I was under no obligation to offer a positive review, Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own,
BittmanBread Netgalley.